Motorists report being turned away at Coromandel’s State Highway 25, more cracks appear

Motorists say they’re being turned away from a Coromandel highway due to a growing under-slip.

But authorities say State Highway 25 is still open to light vehicles, though the slip has worsened and more cracks have appeared.

Do you know more? Email news@waikatotimes.co.nz

Road workers are digging into a bank to make a “diversion path” for vehicles in the damaged area, between Hikuai and Whangamatā.

READ MORE:
* Road falls away on SH25 in ‘another blow’ for Coromandel Peninsula
* Thousands of truck trips and more than 100 workers clearing ‘fragile’ Coromandel roads
* Thames-Coromandel recovery effort set to be ‘very long and very expensive’

Part of the highway was washed out after an estimated 70 to 100mm of rain on Sunday added to the summer of weather batterings and blows to the peninsula’s roading network.

It reopened on Monday afternoon to light traffic.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said there has been further movement at the under-slip site and it was being monitored.

But light vehicles could still pass.

Thames-Coromandel civil defence controller Garry Towler said more cracks had appeared in the road on Tuesday.

He said Higgins road workers were creating a diversion path around the slips by digging into the bank.

There was a big team working hard, he said, and the goal was to complete it tonight.

He could not confirm if the road was closed or operating with stop-go management.

Rumours were circulating on social media, with motorists reporting being turned away from the slip.

Getting around the Coromandel was already hard enough of late, with the closure of the arterial SH25A route and slips, dropouts and debris on various local roads.

Christina Woodd​ said she was trying to get through from Hikuai at 12.55pm and was turned around.

A road worker told her nobody was hurt but the road had “completely crumbled away” so everyone had to turn back.

She said she must have arrived just as it happened, because the radio and the electronic sign reported it as open.

Another local said on social media he was queued in traffic to get through the damaged section of road when another metre collapsed in front of him.

He thought he was the last car through, and said the large cracks looked as if more would cave in.